Urbanisation | 21st Century Challenges What’s the challenge? Humans are rapidly becoming an urban species, with millions of people migrating to cities each year. Over half of the world’s population live in urban areas and this is likely to reach 70% of the population by 2050. FactsIn 2008 for the first time in history more people lived in cities than in rural areas.Slums are the world’s fastest growing habitat. Rural to urban migration Much of global urbanisation is due to rural-urban migration. The global proportion of urban population rose dramatically during the twentieth century: 1900 13% (220 million) 1950 29% (732 million) 2005 49% (3.2 billion) By 2030 this figure is estimated by the United Nations to be 60% (4.9 billion) Source: The UN World Urbanization Prospects (2009) Cities In 1900, the world’s largest city was London, which then had 6.5 million, and out of the 10 largest cities that year, only one was outside of Europe or America. Slums Case study: Kibera slum, Nairobi, KenyaKibera is East Africa’s largest slum.
Revealed: London is the most unequal place in the UK - Sky News London is by far the most unequal region in Britain, with a greater slice of the nation's poorest and richest residents than anywhere else. New research for Sky News, carried out by the Office for National Statistics, has revealed that the value of property owned by households in the capital has gone above £1tn for the first time, with more than a fifth of London households having total wealth of more than £1m. But almost exactly the same proportion of Londoners live in the poorest households, with total wealth of under £20,000. The term wealth includes the value of equity you have in a property, as well as savings, pension pot and possessions. Sky News analysis shows pronounced regional variations, with households in South East England having more than double the wealth of those in the North East. Scottish and Welsh households have, on average, more money than regions in the North of England or in either the West or East Midlands.
'Forest cities': the radical plan to save China from air pollution | Cities When Stefano Boeri imagines the future of urban China he sees green, and lots of it. Office blocks, homes and hotels decked from top to toe in a verdant blaze of shrubbery and plant life; a breath of fresh air for metropolises that are choking on a toxic diet of fumes and dust. Last week, the Italian architect, famed for his tree-clad Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) skyscraper complex in Milan, unveiled plans for a similar project in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing. The Chinese equivalent – Boeri’s first in Asia – will be composed of two neighbouring towers coated with 23 species of tree and more than 2,500 cascading shrubs. The structures will reportedly house offices, a 247-room luxury hotel, a museum and even a green architecture school, and are currently under construction, set for completion next year. But Boeri now has even bolder plans for China: to create entire “forest cities” in a country that has become synonymous with environmental degradation and smog.
Life expectancy in Britain has fallen so much that a million years of life co... Buried deep in a note towards the end of a recent bulletin published by the British government’s statistical agency was a startling revelation. On average, people in the UK are now projected to live shorter lives than previously thought. In their projections, published in October 2017, statisticians at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated that by 2041, life expectancy for women would be 86.2 years and 83.4 years for men. In both cases, that’s almost a whole year less than had been projected just two years earlier. As a result, and looking further ahead, a further one million earlier deaths are now projected to happen across the UK in the next 40 years by 2058. It means that the 110 years of steadily improving life expectancy in the UK are now officially over. A rising tide of life Life expectancy is most commonly calculated from birth. In 1891, life expectancy for women in England and Wales was 48 years. Life expectancy continued to soar ahead. Flatlining
Growing mega-cities will displace vast tracts of farmland by 2030, study says | Environment Our future crops will face threats not only from climate change, but also from the massive expansion of cities, a new study warns. By 2030, it’s estimated that urban areas will triple in size, expanding into cropland and undermining the productivity of agricultural systems that are already stressed by rising populations and climate change. Roughly 60% of the world’s cropland lies on the outskirts of cities—and that’s particularly worrying, the report authors say, because this peripheral habitat is, on average, also twice as productive as land elsewhere on the globe. “We would expect peri-urban land to be more fertile than average land, as mankind tends to settle where crops can be produced,” says Felix Creutzig from the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change in Berlin, and principal author on the paper. “However, we were ignorant about the magnitude of this effect.”
Pollution hotspots revealed: Check your area Image copyright Getty Images Marylebone Road and Hyde Park Corner, both in central London, have the most polluted postcodes in Britain, says a new study on air quality. The data comes from a project to map concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) across the country. However, the results also show that large parts of Britain have relatively clean air. Diesel vehicles are a key source of NO2 gas, which has been linked to respiratory disease. While this study only concentrates on NO2 pollution, scientists advise that high concentrations of NO2 are generally a good indication that other pollutant types may also be present. You can see what air quality is like in your area by entering your postcode in the search below. Sorry, your browser does not support this tool How polluted is your street? Source: MappAir100 by EarthSense If you cannot view the postcode search, please click here to reload the page. Five ways to avoid pollution Three-quarters of the postcodes with the worst ratings are in London.
The Observer view on London’s wealth gap | Opinion The cliche of London as a tale of two cities is well-worn. But new research published by the Trust for London shows it is deservedly so. Striking new figures show that the proportion of households classified as either poor or wealthy has grown across the country in recent decades, leaving a shrinking middle. But it is in London that the trend is by far the most pronounced. London is now a city of contradictions. It is also by far the most culturally diverse part of the country, a melting pot of ethnicities, languages, faiths and traditions, more liberal and tolerant than the rest of Britain. In this city of contradictions Londoners of different means live utterly separate lives. The contrast with the lives of poor Londoners could not be starker. The supposed trickle-down from the City doesn’t even reach the capital’s middle-income households. These contrasts betray the danger in drawing simplistic conclusions about wealth distribution winners based just on region or age.
China's Shanghai sets population at 25 million to avoid ‘big city disease’ China’s financial hub of Shanghai will limit its population to 25 million people by 2035 as part of a quest to manage “big city disease”, authorities have said. The State Council said on its website late on Monday the goal to control the size of the city was part of Shanghai’s masterplan for 2017-2035, which the government body had approved. “By 2035, the resident population in Shanghai will be controlled at around 25 million and the total amount of land made available for construction will not exceed 3,200 square kilometres,” it said. State media has defined “big city disease” as arising when a megacity becomes plagued with environmental pollution, traffic congestion and a shortage of public services, including education and medical care. But some experts doubt the feasibility of the plans, with one researcher at a Chinese government thinktank describing the scheme as “unpractical and against the social development trend”. Reuters contributed to this report … we have a small favour to ask.
Why Greater London should be made into an urban national park | Public Leaders Network Last year I visited all 15 of the UK's national parks. I explored windswept tors, hidden gorges, wild waters and enjoyed the view from the top of Britain's highest peaks. During this journey I could see something was missing: a major urban habitat. Covering up to 7% of the UK, urban areas are recognised by Natural England as a distinct habitat, and by that definition London is truly remarkable. The population of 8.3m shares the city with 13,000 species of wildlife that inhabit the conurbation's 3,000 parks, 30,000 allotments, two national nature reserves, 36 sites of special scientific interest and 142 local nature reserves. A massive 47% of London is green space, making it one of the greenest cities in the world for its size. The statutory purpose of national park status is to "conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the area" and "promote opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of the park by the public."
Explicit cookie consent STANDING in a corridor on the fifth floor of a tower block on the Aylesbury estate in south London is a miserable experience. The wind whips along unending concrete walls that are uniformly grey and permanently damp (though the occasional vomit stain provides a splash of colour). The stairwells reek of urine and cheap disinfectant and the smell of decaying rubbish wafts from the disposal chutes. Cleaning up and repainting hardly seems likely to make a difference, except perhaps to provide a blank canvas for the next gang of graffiti artists. The estate is a grim monument to Britain's failed post-war experiment in social housing. It is also, thankfully, not long for this world. But Aylesbury is only one part of a bigger problem. In the short term, the buildings can be improved by trying to make up for the years of neglect. The complicated structural repairs needed to extend the towers' lives would be prohibitively expensive. There are economic worries, too.
47 per cent of London is green space: Is it time for our capital to become a national park? | Environment | The Independent High up on a grassy hillock alive with wild flowers, a man wearing a beard and sturdy shoes addresses more than 100 young explorers. The sun strikes their faces and the surrounding landscape. It would be a scene of bucolic wonder were it not for the bottle tops and fag ends at their feet, the concrete and glass blocks that dominate the skyline, and the rumble of flight paths, railways and the frantic Mile End road. Yet former geography teacher Daniel Raven-Ellison, who has to shout to be heard, has come to an oasis of green in what feels like East London’s grey desert to present a radical vision for the capital. “We have eight million trees in London; the world’s largest urban forest,” he tells geography students from Queen Mary University, which sits just across the Regent’s Canal. Daniel Raven-Ellison (@DanRavenEllison) is a founder of the Greater London National Park campaign and a National Geographic Emerging Explorer. (Mark Chilvers) Daniel Raven-Ellison (Mark Chilvers) Reuse content
100 Women: Football offers girls a shield in Brazil's violent favelas Image copyright Gustavo Oliveira/WBR Photo Life in the favelas, home to almost a quarter of Rio's population, is hard. Brazil's favelas are a battleground between heavily armed drug gangs and the police. The death toll is high, and residents fear being caught in the crossfire. On average, one Rio resident is hit by a stray bullet every seven hours. A recent spike in violence comes alongside massive unemployment, as Brazil begins to emerge from the worst recession in its history. But people have grown used to carrying out their daily lives against a permanent background of violence. And some young girls have found solace and an escape from their environment through football. These girls gather in a pitch known to be a safe space in Complexo de Penha, located on the Morro do Caracol hill. The pitch was built by Street Child United, a UK-based charity that gives at-risk young people opportunities through sport. "The shooting happens several times a week. Thammy, 20 years old Taissa, 16 years old